Pokemon RBY: Unknown Dungeons
by Kepheus
Summary: Gray, a boy with the bad luck to catch nothing but psychopathic Pokemon, begins his Kanto Journey, hoping it will be peaceful and dull. Yet evil is stirring in Kanto and the diabolical Lord Iron Mask and his Testament Group begin committing incredible crimes, all revolving around a secret crime from years ago that is hidden only by time and a far-reaching conspiracy...
1. The Beginning

The violet leering shadow swooped across the arena with blurring speed, its stubby claw cutting air as the spine-ridden monster opposing it jumped backwards, its hind-legs grinding dust into the air as it skidded to a stop. Striking its forelegs into the ground, the Nidorino flew towards the Gengar with its venomous horn smoking from acid as it was about to plunge into the Ghost-type's body—

"Gray! Would you come down here please?" came a cry drifting from down the stairs.

"Okay!" shouted the boy and switched the television off. Gray stood where he rushed and rushed obediently off to heed his mother's calling, leaving his room to step out into the majestic oaken hallway that lead into a grand staircase that spread like a dress across the entrance hall of his family's ancestral mansion and whose gilded banisters curved into the images of the three highest forms of Pallet Town's trademark pokémon trio. Goldish-white light stream into through the long windows stretching down the walls in long pairs, casting light that reflected off various ornamental furnitures: pokémon sculptures in bronze and silver, ornamental vases sheltering various kinds of flower, glass cases defending higher-class artifacts, and two small collectives of couches and chairs centered on coffee tables for when guests came over. Just in front of him, however, was Gray's mother standing at enormous front double-doors, which bore as knockers the faces of the same creatures whose outlines made up the sides of the stairs.

"Gray! I have a little something for you to deliver to the professor," said his mother. Gray's mother was a wonderfully cheerful woman, whose smile was always so broad her eyes always seemed shut, though her hair had the same dour gray color as her son's, a strange mutation both bore even though both were still very young. In her arms was a box Gray knew had come in the mail just two days ago and had lain on one of the coffee tables without comment since then. She put it aside however so that she might kneel and hug her son. As she took him into her arms, he caught the whiff of roses—not perfume but living roses, raised with hard work and ardor for many years—flowing from her hair and dark-blue dress.

"The Professor has returned from his business trip," Gray's mother said, "and he had something he ordered delivered here since he wouldn't be able to receive it. Would you be willing to take it to him?"

"Of course," said Gray. "Um… Did Dad come home with him?"

"Your father? No, I'm sorry. Apparently he was supposed to but he just called. Apparently someone managed to earn the eight badges and challenged the Elite 4, so he had to rush off to Indigo Plateau…"

"I understand," said Gray. The Professor was his father's closest comrade and had served for many years as the brain to the Remora patriarch's brawn, perpetually serving one another in research and battle. Though they had no relationship by blood, it was said they thought of one another as brothers, and Gray had developed a habit of referring to the Professor (who was around more often than his own father) as Uncle.

"He said he'd be home soon…"

"I was just wondering," said Gray. Unsteadily he shifted his weight to get a firmer, more balanced grip on the parcel. "I'll be off now!"

"Thank you, dear. Give the Professor my regards," she said and opened the door for him. He blinked at the rush of spring-time warmth and sunshine before awkwardly tottering out. There were many multi-headed birds in the yard, the Doduo and Dodrio his mother collected and bred for Contests and Shows, many of whom squawked in raucous greeting. The rest rushed his mother, who laughed like a bell and scattered feed from her pockets.

His bicycle was leaning against the house's so, so he shooed one particularly fat and obnoxious Dodrio that was trying to eat the handlebars away and forced the box up into the basket set just behind the seat.

Gray took a moment to catch his breath before clambering onto the bike. It took a moment for the wheels to spin even after he started pumping the pedals, but once he was off he was off, shooting quickly down the white brick road cutting through his family's property that quickly transformed into dirt as he passed through the wide-open front gate. There was a great hill overlooking Pallet Town and the Remora Residence was perched right on top of it. For just a moment Gray was able to catch a breath-taking view of all the Pallet countryside, donning its aurora-like spring-time colors as every breed of flower in all Kanto were spread all across it emerald fields and even among the village itself, before gravity took hold of the boy, the heavy box, the wheels, and began dragging him down.

All the fields below melted together into a blurred rainbow as the bicycle's wheels began spinning like a car's as he was driven down the slope recklessly, burning a groove of speed through the dirt as he charged down towards the village.

"No! No! No! No! No!" he shouted. He clenched the brake and reversed the spin of his feet futilely. Twisting his neck over his shoulder he saw the cardboard package and mentally grumbled at its weight. Meanwhile he shredded past an old couple walking their Meowth as he finally passed into towns. The vague shapes of buildings tore past him; eventually one would be in front of him.

"Come on!" he begged. "Come on!"

Gray tried to force a slow-down by twisting the handlebars, forcing a turn and for a moment he was confronted by a blue-haired phantom of a girl whose eyes flared and her mouth opened. Again he turned, so sharply his bicycle collapsed onto its side, crushing his left leg and casting a cloud of dust into the air. Gray whimpered and rubbed his dirtied eyes and grabbed at his aching leg.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" he heard a girl say. Gray felt the painful weight being lifted off of him with some difficulty. "Are you alright?"

The girl had not been just some trick of speed and confusion but a real girl, one that looked around his age of fifteen but a full head higher than was usual, which meant she was a full and embarrassing two and a half heads higher than Gray. The girl had the gleam of a predator in her eyes and appeared dressed for traveling, with a red shirt tucked into short brown pants heavily-laden with a belt of stuffed item bags. Her hair was a lovely shade of turquoise—you could never tell if it was natural or dyed nowadays—and done up in a single ponytail. Her fists wee crushing against her hips and she was looking at him without the concern that was in her words, just brutal blame.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I had this heavy package for the professor…"

"The Professor?" said the girl. She looked at the box now lying sideways in the basket and took it. "Hey, I'm actually going to meet the professor as well."

"You? Why?" asked Gray.

"I'm going to get my first pokémon!" she said and her face brightened. It was a strange transformation from what it had been just moments before.

"Only now?" said Gray. Her gaze darkened immediately. "I mean… You look around my age. Shouldn't you have gotten your first pokémon years ago?"

"What are you talking about? I'm much older than twelve!"

"… I'm fifteen…"

"Really? Goodness! You need a better diet!"

"It's a genetic condition," said Gray.

"Oh… Sorry." The girl sounded genuinely regretful at least. Gray felt a little that way. In all honesty he wasn't sure if it was genetic. Neither of his parents was short. His sister wasn't short. Truthfully Gray believed he was just unlucky, but he didn't like to admit it, certainly not to stranger. Besides, he didn't know for sure it was a lie. "Anyways, my name's Serena."

"I am Gray."

"You weren't born with that hair, too?" she asked. He shot her a grim look. "Sorry, sorry! Hey, could you take to the lab? I'm new in town. I just came in on a ship from Vermillion City."

"Sure," said Gray. He got up and tried to reclaim the box, but Serena insisted on holding it for him. Instead he righted his bicycle and wheeled it beside him as he walked, leading Serena to the southeastern side of town where the Professor's famous laboratory was.

"So, why are you getting your pokémon so late?" asked Gray again.

"My mother insisted on me getting a proper education," said Serena with a sniff. "I finally finished my studies last winter."

"The ten-year olds already picked up their pokémon a few weeks ago as the earth finished thawing," said Gray.

"I know that!" snapped Serena. "I just… Didn't want stuck with those snot-nosed brats. I'm not going to be surrounded by ten-year olds on my first day. What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yes. I don't see any pokéballs at your waist," she said. "You said you were fifteen so… Are you just not interested in being a trainer?"

Gray blushed and turned his head down. "No. No. It's not like…"

"Well? Is it like me?"

"Well, no…"

"Well, it has to be something," said Serena.

"Ah, it's complicated." Gray's face was growing ruddier by the second. "Well, I'm actually the heir to a prominent family of trainers so I'm, expected to become one. It's just, well, my mother's very protective of me. My health isn't the best. And, well, I guess I have been a little.. content."

"Content?" said Serena, arching her eyebrow.

"Yes," said Gray after a moment. "Content."

Serena took a minute to respond to that with outraged shouting. "Are you kidding? SO you're saying you're just being lazy!"

"That's a harsh word for it!" said Gray. "I just really love this place—my home, I was born here. I mean, look at it!" Gray swept his arm around at the simple village cottages, populated with their humble occupants and overgrown with the sweet vegetation of springtime taking root in their walls and their ceilings. Without Serena, this would have been a quiet, serene place where one could just drink in the quiet for hours.

"Yes, this place is really nice," said Serena. "But who cares? A Pokémon Journey is one of the most important events in any child's life! And you're just sitting on your palms, wasting your life away?"

"In the end, my mother won't let me," said Gray. "My Father sometimes argues with her about this, but in the end she always wins. My older sister already went off and married some horrible man (at least I think he is horrible, it's what my mother tells me) and my father's always working, so if I leave there's nobody left to keep my mother company except for the birds."

"That's just an excuse!" said Serena. "Who is your father anyway, to be important enough to be part of a big training family?"

"Ummm… Oh! We're here!" said Gray. They had nearly walked right by the lab without noticing. They had wandered about half-a-mile away from the heart of town, where the laboratory and its territories were allowed to stretch many acres without impediment.

The laboratory had not always held the same purpose; years before it had been an enormous ranch house owned by ambitious group who attempted to breed Tauros until the endeavor had been ruined by the lack of female versions of Tauros to sustain the herds, whereupon the Pokémon Association had snapped up the place for its vast tracts of land, useful for raising pokémon for the purposes of study, and assigned their finest man, Professor Adonijah, to the task of sustaining it. The laboratory still held the rural, simple look of the country even though inside you would find vast sections replaced by metal and filled with computers and various other machineries designed for study. Small windmills were scattered about in the fenced-in, higher elevated portions they could see to the north, close to his family's hill, where they caught the winds and assisted in providing power.

Standing outside the front was the man himself waiting for them. Professor Adonijah dressed sloppily for the highest authority on Pokémon in the entire region, wearing only a loose, unbuttoned lab coat above long-sleeved sweatshirt and jeans, he looked more like an imitator of a professor. For the weather he was dressed warmly—he always was—with his hands covered by gloves and his neck hidden by a scarf. On his head was his curious violet turban set with a green jewel, the most eccentric and most unchangeable part of his wardrobe that he was never seen without. From this flowed an unruly mane of brown hair. Adonijah did not conform to the physical stereotype of the intellectual, being an enormous, powerful-looking man with a face that was always twinkling with joy.

"Ah! So you have met each other?" said Adonijah. "What a wonderful coincidence! I could not have wished for better!"

"What does that mean?" asked Gray.

"Oh, nothing, nothing" said Adonijah but he was practically bouncing. "Come on, come in my friends! I have been waiting for you. Please, enjoy my hospitality!"

Adonijah roughly guided them inside, where they discovered the living room had been transformed into a sort of miniature library. There were many scientists in lab coats reading books that had been stacked against the walls alongside one fat man who was talking excitedly about the wonders of PC technology to a young, twenty-something woman Gray knew from around town. The man's boisterous admirations were going mostly unnoticed, as she seemed more interested in her book. Some of these people offered Adonijah greetings, which he dutifully returned before leading them between a pair of bookcases into another room.

This one was far more mechanized than they last. An entire wall had been dedicated to a computer console with a screen the size of a coffee table, along with a few smaller PCs accompanied by its side. In the center there was a sort of metallic pedestal with a glass cylinder stretching upwards containing three pokéballs set in impressions in the metal. Next to these were a table containing three unusual devices that resembled very thin books.

"Ah, this must be the custom pokéball I ordered!" he said. "How gentlemanly of you to assist Gray with the task, Serena!"

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, nothing, just a little joke!" he said hastily and took it from her. However he did not open it, but placed it under a computer desk. Gray gazed with more than a little menace at the heavy package that had caused him such trouble. It had seemed to be much heavier than any pokéball to him.

"That was merely a pretense, of course!" said Adonijah. "Come, Gray, Serena, let me introduce you to your new pokémon!"

"What?" said Gray.

"Finally!" cried Serena.

Adonijah tapped a few buttons on the great computer and the glass sank into the pedestal. Three images appeared on the screen: that of a red lizard with a fire on its tail, a squat dinosaur with a bulb on its back, and lastly a sky-blue turtle with a curly tail, Squirtle.

"I'm sure both of you know of this by now," said Adonijah, "but these are the three starter pokémon traditionally handed out to young children beginning their journeys as trainers, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. It is time for you to make your choice."

"W-wait a minute, Uncle!" cried Gray. "I'm just here for a delivery!"

"Hah! Of course you were! It is as your father and I planned!" said Adonijah as if such a simple trick was an incredible triumph. "It is time for you, Gray, to begin your journey. It is long overdue. Your father and I plotted this together, behind your mother's back, and it took a great deal of courage to do such a thing! You wouldn't let such bravery go to waste, would you?"

"Yes. Um, no," said Gray. He stuttered. His hand brushed across his forehead and felt the sweat rising on his brow. "I mean, it's just, my mother, and I'm, just no warning, not—"

"Ah, I see." Adonijah's face turned gloomy. The professor turned away and suddenly seemed very old; his back was hunch and his chin was pointing down. "You wish to bring shame upon the family. Oh, to think the noble Remoras could end in such a way, in a child too cowardly to even begin his journey! Oh, how the media will mock and jeer, like a gang of drunken Mr. Mime!"

"No! Don't put it like that!" said Gray.

"Wait. Remoras?" said Serena. "When you said prominent member of a training family… You mean you're part of _his_ family?"

"Yes," said Gray weakly.

"The family of Dae Remora," she said in awe, "the master of Ghost-types, the second-in-command of the Elite Four only behind the Dragon Master, Roi de Grace."

"Yes," said Gray again.

"That is it," said Serena. She took him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up to eye level. The intensity of her gaze could have cracked iron. "You are going to start this journey now. You have no right not to. And to show how important it is that you begin this journey, I'm going to let you have first pick. Go on, get one."

Serena dropped him and shoved Gray gently in the direction of the pokéballs, where he found each one with a little sign on the button indicating what was inside: a leaf, a fire, and a drop of water. "Ah…"

Gray's hand wavered briefly, but not for long and only because of his surprise. In truth, Gray had secretly decided which of the three pokémon he would choose many years ago, if the choice had ever been presented to him, so no more thought was needed.

"Ah, you have chosen Charmander, the Fire-type pokemon. That one if the most difficult to raise, but perhaps it will be most worth it!" said Adonijah.

"Ah, come on, really?" moaned Serena. Even though it had been her idea, her lip was now curled sourly. "You looked so much like a Bulbasaur guy."

"Oh," said Gray and looked gloomily down at his choice. "I didn't know you wanted Charmander. Listen, it's not important, I can…"

"No. No," said Serena. "I let you have the choice and I'm standing by it. I'm just a little surprised, that's all. Besides, I know the perfect way to get back at you."

"I suppose you will not be getting Bulbasaur then?" said Adonijah.

"Of course not! I'm getting Squirtle. Why on earth would you think so?"

"Well," said Adonijah, "your mother, well, she sort of hoped you would pick Bulbasaur. After all, her specialty lies in the Grass-type and your father's lies in the Poison-type, so…"

"I'm not going to let myself be bound by my blood," said Serena and she puffed out her chest with a self-invested, deeply personal pride. "I shall choose Squirtle."

"Weren't you just complaining about how I was letting my bloodline down—"

"I'm picking Squirtle!" she said again. Gray fell silent.

"Well, I am glad that's settled then!" said Adonijah. "Now, I actually have a gift for you two. Since I've given you two pokémon, I'd like to ask you both a favor. I have these special devices, these pokédexes, that are specially designed to record the data of pokémon that are seen and caught. Most trainers are given these, but these are—well, they're a little special, with advanced AIs—they are prototypes Silph has given to me. They want field-testers and I thought you two would be the best candidates."

"Ooh, excellent! These pokédexes will give me an edge in battle!" said Serena. "They're used to help command pokemon in battle too, aren't they?"

"Correct," said Adonijah. Using special microphone technology originally researched on a Pikachu, they allow you to give commands to pokémon in battle without your opponent hearing them. They have internal batteries that are supposed to last for decades, but if any of them run out of power, be sure to call me. Open them up—fiddle with them a bit."

Adonijah took the devices and distributed them based on color, with Gray taking the one colored red while Serena was given the blue one. Gray had seen his father use his pokédex, so it was easy enough to find the power button that activated and automatically opened the device, which greeted him with an electronic voice.

"Greetings, trainer! I am Epsilon, the latest version of the Electronic Pokemon Encylo—OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD!"

"Hello!" said Gray. "You can talk like a person?"

"OH MY FREAKING GOD."

"Um… Is something wrong?"

"No, it's working as it should be."

"NOT AGAIN. NOT AGAIN."

"Are you sure, Professor?"

"Yes."

"WHHHHHHHHHYYYY ME. WHHHHHYYYYYYY ME. GOD YOU STUPID BASTARD. WHY. WHY. WHY."

Gray shut the device off and tucked it into his pocket. With luck, it would have calmed down by the next time he needed it.

"In any case," said Adonijah, "I once hoped to complete the pokédex myself—that was my dream, when I was young, to capture all 140 discovered pokémon. I'm too old now, though, so I hope you will live out my dream for me, as best as you can."

Gray nodded with the determination of a hero. "I'll do my best, sir. For now, though, let's meet my new pokémon. Go, Xewtwo!"

"Xew-what?" said Adonijah. His eyes shot wide open and his neck craned high, as if just jolted by a blast of electricity.

"It just came to me."

"SEE I TOLD HE WAS CRAZY! Don't do this me me professor for the love of all that is—"

"I thought I turned you off," said Gray, striking the button again. "Again, go Xewtwo!"

Gray tapped the button on the pokéball and squeezed, unleashing a cloud of harmless white smoke that dissipated almost instantly to reveal the fire-tailed creature from the screen. Gray knelt a little for eye-to-eye contact. Its skin was a dry, soft red color but its eyes were like globules of cerulean water shimmering in the middle of a desert. At least they did, until they turned crimson with innate rage and its jumped with the speed of a diving Pidgeot onto Gray's head. Its jaws champed hard on his skull while his stubby claws slashed wildly in every direction they could.

"Waaaaaahh!"

Muffled screams of hatred cut through Gray's spiky hair as Xewtwo did everything in its ability to hurt him. Serena jumped to action and tried to pull the dragon off, but she yelped and flinched away—the tail-flame had scorched her gloves. Adonijah, whose smile did not flicker for an instant, calmly walked to a nearby cleaning sink, gathered water in his palm, and flung at the salamander pokémon. It squealed and fell of Gray's head, rubbing the steaming circle where it had been stricken.

Gray emerged from being mauled viciously with a slightly crooked, perhaps not entirely happy but not entirely displeased, smile on his face. He took the Fire-type into his hands and looked at it like a child speaking to its Teddie bear. "Well, he needs a little house-breaking, but I'm sure I can do it.

"Um, no," said Serena flatly. "It hated you on sight. I think it's still trying to kill you."

Xewtwo was making chomping motions and it would have surely injured Gray if only it had a neck.

"I'm sure a Water-type like my Squirtle will be far better behaved," said Serena with confidence. Dropping her own pokéball onto the ground, her new Squirtle emerged standing in the same bland pose as it was on the screen.

"Your pokémon is less interesting than mine."

"TAKE THAT BACK!"

"Now, now, children, get along!" said Adonijah. "You know, the best way to begin a journey, I believe, is in a battle. Wouldn't you two agree?"

"Oh, definitely!" said Serena. "Come on, Gray, let's do this! I'll show you just how interesting my Squirtle is!" Both trainer and pokémon took on an aggressive, boxer-like pose.

"But Professor, what about your lab?"

"Oh, it'll be fine! Go on ahead!"

"If you say so," said Gray and flung his Charmander towards the Squirtle. "I choose you, Xewtwo!"

The Charmander gaped at being thrown, but as soon as it saw its target it grinned evilly and extended its claws forward. Squirtle, being still young, panicked and shut itself tightly in its shell. Xewtwo beat at the armor with its claws to no use.

"Hah! You're pokémon can't even hurt mine!"

"Umm…" Gray screwed up his face as he tried to think. What would his father say, seeing him like this? Nothing would be worse. "Oh!"

"Oh what?" asked Serena. A little frown appeared on her face, keeping up the aggressive act but secretly hiding the suspicion he might actually come up with something.

"He's already figured it out!"

Xewtwo was lining up his scorching tail with the Squirtle's shell like a golfer at tee, then spun its body to slam its tail against its opponent. It slid as quick as if on iced-over glass and beat a mighty dent in the large computer, ricocheting backwards.

"Oh! Your computer!"

"It's fine, it's fine!"

The Charmander darted to the left and caught the ricocheting object, striking again with the agility of a tennis player, and another dent was added to the main computer. The screen hazed over with static.

"Ooh, he's playing wall hockey!" said Adonijah.

"No! Come on, Squirtle, don't do this to me!" Squirtle, however, continued doing it to her—if that phrase could be used, considering it didn't want to—and Xewtwo uttered a sort of animalistic laughter as it ran to and fro, racing with the shell to keep up with the competition until at last, Serena sighed, and recalled her own pokémon. Gray did the same.

"You didn't win that fight!" said Serena. "Your pokémon did—you didn't give it that order, it came up with it on its own."

Gray's faced became slightly apologetic although there was a certain smug gleam on his skin and eyes Serena's sharp eyes could not miss. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe we'll have a more definitive battle next time."

"Maybe," she said. "Well, now that that's done, I need to get going if I want to make it to Viridian City by nightfall. Is that all you need of me, Professor?"

"Of course!" said the professor. "I'm glad I was instrumental in the creation of a brand new trainer. Remember, you have access to me and my facilities via PC whenever you may need them. I hope that your extra years of education will help in granting you a head-start on becoming as excellent a trainer as any other!"

"Um, yeah," said Serena. "Thanks a lot for the pokémon, old man. And as for you, Gray," her voice transformed into a ferocious shout, "as for you, next time we meet I'm going to obliterate you, got that?"

Gray shuddered a little, too intimidated to answer. Seeing that her rival had nothing to say, she cocked in head in a proud and dismissive way before flying out of the room.

"Well, I must say, you have earned yourself quite a rival!" said Adonijah. "I can already tell—you have a wonderful adventure ahead of you."

Gray stared at the ground, feeling awkward. The events of the day had happened so fast—and so semi-nonsensically—that he had hardly realized what was happening, as if he was in a dream going faster than reality ever had. Now that Serena was gone the energy seemed to have left the world a little and his sense had caught up with the present, causing him to crouch in ground in a depression, as he always did when he was unsure of what to do.

"What's up with you?" said Adonijah.

"I… I'm not sure if I can do this," said Gray.

"Ah! I expected as much—the good old fashioned last-minute refusal of the call," said the professor.

"Serena was right though," said Gray. "I mean, I felt good about winning—real good—but only until her words registered to me once she was gone. My training career—if I choose to start it—began on a fluke."

"My dear, boy, buck up!" he said. Taking Gray by the shoulder—a rather awkward proposition—he led Gray towards the exit. "Why, it takes a great deal of skill to be a fluke, believe it or not, indeed some of the best careers begin with flukes."

"Like whose?"

"Ah, well." Adonijah bit his lip. "That's the trick, you see! Nobody knows because nobody ever admits it—but I am quite certain there have been many great flukes out there. To stumble into a Beedrill's nest, only to stumble out again in accidental victory, takes a great deal of skill! In any case… You are only a beginner, so of course you won't be very good at it yet! These things take time, you know."

"Hmm… I guess you're right. But my mother—"

"This is an order from your father," said Adonijah. "You take orders from your mother all the time—but when was the last time your father told you what to do? You owe him quite a big chore."

Gray knew by this point that that logic wasn't quite sound, but he chose to accept it. "Yeah. You're right. Thanks, Uncle."

"Anytime. Now, I have a few other things for you." From a shelf, Adonijah provided a large trainer's pack. "Inside you'll find pokéballs, potions, escape ropes, and many other objects that… you'll…"

Adonijah blinked slowly. A haunting, languid melody gradually filled the air, flowing like a slow stream in from where Serena had just left. The Professor looked in the direction, nodded a little at something, then gently sat down on the floor and closed his eyes. Gray blinked as well. The noise was filling his ears; his muscles slumped, dead and powerless.

"Oh no. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Gray jumped. A shrill noise was coming from his pocket.

"How do you keep turning yourself back on?"

"Stop whining, I'm saving your worthless hide. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Gray heard the sound of doors opening and feet running across the wooden floors. Their shadows came first, then the four intruders themselves came charging in. Two were human and two were monsters.

The first was a tall woman with long, dark hair that fell fabulously many feet and she wore a monochrome man's suit, one of those truly fine ones Gray had seen his father wear at the parties of the ultra-rich and her companion was another woman, almost a perfect opposite in color, with golden hair that fell in twisting curls and a yellow-and-green dress, the kind you saw beguiling belles wore on old plantations and family farms. By their skirts were a pink, fey pokémon and a pointy, yellow rodent-like creature.

"Clefairy, a Fairy-type pokémon—wait, what, when the hell did that happen, I thought we were doing this OG-style? I mean, the 151 haven't even been fully discovered yet—and Pikachu, the worst of all electric types," said Epsilon from his pocket. Quickly Gray took his pokédex and pointed it their direction, now glad for its words. "Both around L10. Good luck with your L5 Charmander!"

"Oh, dear, a cute little boy avoided Treble's sing!" said the belle.

"Well, that makes things more interesting, I must say," said the cross-dresser—or was she? Now that he heard her, the voice sounded rather masculine, like what you would imagine a goblin to sound like. "Oh, you know the best part my dear Angel? This means we can recite our motto! I thought the plan would stop us, but not anymore!"

"Oh, hooray!" Angel jumped up and down. "Sweetie, you always know what will make me happy! Let's do this, Northie!"

"Northie" tossed a music player to the ground, activating it with a jolt, unleashing stereotypically ominous music.

"To protect our wallets from starvation!" began Angel.

"To sin against all the peoples within our nation!" continued Northie.

"To indulge in the evils of greed and lust!"

"To go all out or to go all bust!"

"Angel!"

"Northa!"

"Rocketto Gangsters, erupt in a fabulous flame!"

"If you lose to us, only you're to blame!"

"Pika pika!"

"Clef clef!"

"This is stupid," said Epsilon.

"Hey, you just don't get villanistic style!" snarled Northa.

"What do you want?" said Gray. "Why did you make everybody go to sleep!"

"A source leaked that a special shipment of pokémon, pokédexes, and pokéballs were being sent to this place out of season," said Northa. "The ten-year olds already toddled out of here weeks ago, so we knew something special was going down. So let's see what we have here, eh?"

Northa approached the last pokéball on the table. Gray nearly ran to stop him, but his legs refused to move. He looked down and saw his legs quivering so hard they were barely managing to keep him standing. A heavy weight slammed into his side and he fell to the ground with both his arms pinned behind him by, when he finally managed to turn and look, the Clefairy. Gray wiggled under its grip but the creature was relentless—its cute exterior hid a wrester's might.

"Let's see what we've got here! I choose you, whoever you are!" Northa tapped the pokeball's button, unleashing the Bulbasaur. It looked blankly at its intended thief and yawned.

"Huh, you know, Bulbasaur was the pokémon I would've chosen if my mother hadn't given me this Clefairy," said Northa. "The other two are missing though. Now where could they be…" Northa's menacing eye fell on Gray.

"I guess you must have either Squirtle or Charmander," said Northa. He crouched over Gray's trapped body. "I'll be taking it, either way!"

"No! No!" Gray thrashed madly against his bounds. The Clefairy tried to quiet him with a hard bite, but Gray bucked hard, bashing his shoulder blade against the fairy's teeth. It fell off him reeling, crying and grasping at its tooth. Gray scrambled as far as he could, facing the thieves from a corner. Xewtwo's pokéball was in his hand.

"I'll… I'll fight you!" said Gray.

"My, aren't you a spicy one," said Northa. "Well, I guess there's something enjoyable about beating up a little kid every now and then. Treble!"

"Aw, do you have to? He's such a cute little boy!" said Angel. The belle knelt and coo'd at him as if he was a captive at a petting zoo. "Let him keep his precious pokémon!"

"Dear, I can't get a Bulbasaur and you get nothing! It's just not fair!"

Angel took a look at the large console, which still displayed the starters, and frowned. "None of those pokémon are too my taste. I've seen their fully-evolved forms. I'd probably just sell or trade them away."

"Grr… Fine, if you say so. Let's just get the rest of the loot and get out of here. Watch 'im, Treble." The Clefairy nodded and trapped Gray from the rest of his room. Imediately Gray moved to throw his ball, but Treble was quicker, releasing a flurry of stars from its belly to knock the ball out of his hands where it rolled under one of the shelves.

"Well, looks like you'll still get something after all!" said Northa, holding up a pair of yellow and green pokédexes. "I think this is it. We don't need the pokéballs—they're supposed to be just normal stuff for basic trainers. A thanks to you, my good friend, for being such an excellent host! May we meet again!"

The Bulbasaur vanished back into its ball and the marauders immediately turned tail and fled with incredible speed. Gray took after them, but his short legs were no match for theirs or their experience. By the time he had finally left the lab, they were already aloft, escaping toward Heaven in a hot-air balloon fashioned in the shape of a Pikachu's head.

"Xewtwo, Ember!" In desperation, Gray did the only thing he could think to do. The unleashed lizard spat fire into the air, but it withered into nothing before getting anywhere near the Rocketto Gang. Northa—he was a man, Gray decided, he had to be despite the feminine looks—was laughing manically from the basket.

"Is that the best you've got? Well, I hope you don't plan on staying that way your whole training career! A pleasure meeting doing crime with you, would steal from again! Later, suckers! Looks like the Rocketto Gang's escaping once again!"

"No!" said Gray. All he could do was watch them shrink. "No! No! They took the Bulbasaur! That poor Bulbasaur! I let them get away, I let…" Gray's voice cracked and failed him. He hurried back inside, where he found Adonijah and the others slowly waking up.

"Uncle! Uncle!" said Gray, then he burst into tears.

"Gray, what's wrong? What happened?" asked the professor.

"I failed you… These thieves… This girly-man and his girly-girl friend… They had a Clefairy and a Piakchu." Gray wiped his face and sniffed. "They took your Bulbasaur and your pokedexes. I was too weak to stop them."

"Ah, is that all? Did they take anything else?"

"No. They seemed to be in a hurry."

"Well…" Adonijah's face had turned into a rare neutral expression. "Well, it could be worst. I had no idea who I was going to give a Bulbasaur and the spare pokedexes to, so with any luck, fate made a finer choice than I ever could have!"

"Uncle! They're thieves!"

"Well, yes, yes, obviously it's not optimal," said the Professor, "but, well.. No reason to cry over spilt milk, right? I'll file the police report. From the sound of things, they were the Rocketto Gang, a duo of thieves who have been at large in Kanto for a while now. Don't cry, Gray—at least nobody was hurt."

"But… That Bulbasaur," said Gray. He looked out the window, as if hoping he might catch one last glimpse of the Pikachu balloon and the direction it was going, to no avail. Gray knew now he had to take on the mantle of trainer, not for himself, but for his failure. From this point on he would dedicate himself to be a better trainer so he could defeat Northa and Angel, then save the stolen pokémon from their evil clutches. It was all he could do to make up for his absolute failure.


	2. Gate to the Indigo Plateau

Chapter 2

The Gate to Indigo Plateau

Gray felt a strange sense of cold fear creep in as he took the first steps onto Route 1. The place was not strange to him; its rolling hills and the meandering path amid them were familiar friends to him, playmates since his childhood, as were its collection of weak and harmless pokémon, the Rattata and the Pidgey. Yet the blue vault of the sky with its gorged clouds stretched so much further now and for the first time he noticed the distant horizon that stretched until nothing more could be seen. This time he was stepping into the world and he was not turning back; for the first time Gray realized just how enormous the world he lived in was and could not help but feel a little afraid that it might swallow him up if he was careless.

Gray had left his bicycle behind, due to the obnoxious maintenance, and although he had wanted to give his mother his goodbyes Adonijah had insisted he not—that he would take care of it—and despite Gray's strong resistance he was eventually overcome and driven away. The last gift Adonijah had given him was some last-minute advice and information.

"Your pokédex is also your identification—not only does it act as your encyclopedia and your battle assistant, but also as your Trainer Card, your Pokémon Trainer's License, which will serve as identification whenever you need it. Remember that last test I gave you? It was actually the trainer's entrance exam! In any case… Use the pokédex whenever you need to use the PC and in case of an emergency, activate its alarm function. It will send a signal for help from the nearest emergency assistance people and they will rush to your aid wherever you are. You probably won't have to worry about that yet, but at a certain point the pokémon are going to become big enough to eat you and boy, you do not want to bite it inside a Victreebel, trust me, I knew a guy who spent two weeks being digested before they got him out and, well, let's just say that although he survived, he definitely would have been happier if he hadn't."

That was pretty much the last thing you should say to a new trainer with poor self-esteem starting off, but probably that was the point.

There were patches of grass here and there that rustled with the motions of pokémon within and he set his Charmander into them, but the battles were disappointing. For his first real, non-fluke victories they were depressingly simple. A scratch here, a tail whip there, and they were done, completely unworthy of remembrance or recalling.

It had been around one o'clock when he had left and as he walked the long way down the route, the sun continued to wane at a steady trek. The only sounds were the suffering of pokémon and the whistling of the winds among the stony hills for so many hours and even though he Serena had left only shortly before him, he never saw. Either she was taking a different route or she was going through fast enough he couldn't keep up. Gray suspected the latter.

Gray knew he had reached Viridian when the land began to sharply rise and the road began to feel hard pavement beneath his feet. Small suburbs and pleasant suburbanites cheered him up and soon he had stepped into the heart of the city, where the apple-colored roof-top of a Pokémon Center drew his eye. Around him he saw in all directions people that looked like pokémon trainers from the pokéballs on their belts; he began to feel nervous from the presence of others older and wiser than himself. Still, he and his pokémon needed to rest, so he bravely headed straight for the center.

It was a happy place, colored all in reds and yellows and with the glad voices of trainers filling the air as they ate in the small food court to the left or relaxed in various lobbies. To the far right were a long line of PCs that were busy with trainers organized things possessions or talking over the video-phones. Further in the back and the right he saw trainers at consoles, swapping pokéballs through machines while to the left there was a small store stocked with trainer specialty items. There were stairs leading upwards Gray would discover led up to rooms that could be rented for the night. Everything a trainer needed or could want was there, but all Gray was interested in the moment was right in front of him, the front desks between him and the healing machines. Many pink-clothed nurses were brightly waiting for customers and he went straight for the one who first waved in greeting as he stepped in.

"Welcome to our Pokémon Center!" she said. The nurse was lithe, short, with bobbed hair and rather shiny teeth.

"I'd like to heal my Charmander, please!"

"Of course! It'll be only a moment," she turned, placed the pokéball in one of the machines, then turned back to him. "So, a new trainer, huh?"

"Just in from Pallet Town."

"Hm. None of the Route 1 pokémon interested you? Not that that's a surprise," said the nurse. "I understand people might feel bored with those—they're so common and don't become interesting until they evolve! Hey, if you're looking for somewhere a little more interesting," she smiled somewhat mischievously, "I know a good place."

"Really?" Gray perked up a little. Although he would never admit it to himself, he wanted a little excitement after the dull first route. "Where?"

"Well, it's a bit of a risk, as you might stumble into some higher level trainers who'll insist on battling you just to stomp you," she said, "but the route to the west—Route 32—is a narrow trail leading into the mountains. Hardy mountain pokémon dwell there—you never know what you might find—and there's a special place all trainers should see at the end of it. You won't be able to go far, though, so you'll have to return here, but it'll be worth going."

"I like the sound of that," said Gray. She made the special place sound like a big secret, but Gray already had an inkling of what it might be. "Thank you."

"Your Charmander is fully-healed!" she said as she returned the ball.

"Thank you," he said again. "Did you happen to see a tall, blue-haired girl? She was another trainer that started with me."

"No, sorry, we get a lot of trainers through here and I don't attend to them all…" As she said this, several others stepped up to the healing counter to other nurses as if to demonstrate her point.

"Oh, that's fine. Thank you again!" said Gray and went straight for the PCs on the right. There was a slot he could slip his pokédex into, logging him in with his ID and providing a variety of option. Gray went straight for the video-phone. With Adonijah gone, nothing could stop him now, except after multiple rings his mother refused to pick up. Gray tried again.

"I bet she's pissed at you," said Epsilon wickedly. "I bet she doesn't want to talk to her son who left her all alone in her big old house."

"What do you know?" barked Gray. After a third attempt, he gave up and logged out. "I bet she's just out in the garden, it's what she always does."

Gray did not try again and decided it would be best to get busy. Leaving the pokémon center, he headed west, following one of the hard roads westward, between a large copse of trees, a surviving limb of Viridian Forest's ancient boundaries, in the northwest and a well-sized lake just south of it where Gray noticed, peculiarly, a fat sleeping man lying down in the middle of an islet. The road became wilder, with cracks and holes and stones scattered all around, and meandered sharply upwards. The houses dwindled as stubby hills hoary with growth took their place and all Gray could see in front of him were scattered fir trees skirted by countless saplings, tall weeds and hefty bushes all interchanged with each other. Hoarse, hard scents scraped through his nose as foliage gnawed as he tried to force its way through. The trail had vanished without him even noticing.

"This is a hard place," said Gray.

"That's why it's so popular," said Epsilon. "You should look for some pokémon around here. They're must be lots hiding in all this greenery garbage—"

A bundle of bushes thrashed wildly and dispensed a flurry of cool-colored blurs, first a blue one that dashed between Gray's legs followed by a series of purples, which all vanished downhill as quick as they had appeared.

"Ding ding! I just barely managed to grab the identification data for those pokémon," said Epsilon. "New Pokemon Seen: Nidoran male and Nidoran female." Two pictures appeared on the screen, portraying similar yet different rabbit-like pokémon covered in spines and differently colored just as those fast creatures had been.

"Judging from that pursuit we just saw it's mating season," said Epsilon, "a pretty fierce one at that."

"Oh… Mating season?" Gray blushed. The tip of his left foot rubbed against his other ankle. "Maybe we should turn back."

"Why?"

"I wouldn't want to interrupt anything… untoward."

"What? This isn't like with people, kid; they'll just be on top of each other! You won't see anything you didn't get from the pictures I just showed."

"Stop talking about it!" Gray jammed his fists against his ears. "Stopstopstop!"

"… Just keep going, you idiot."

"… Okay."

Gray cautiously treads forward, taking in the landscape with wary glances seeking with desperate fear the possible presence of vulgar activities. For a time he continued forward with nothing worse than the occasional Nidoran bursting from the high grass. Then he heard laughter up ahead.

"Hey, other people! I bet they're trainers!" said Gray.

"Yeah. I… Um… Oooh. I like the sound of this. The entertainment value of this time around just sky-rocketed."

"What do you…" Gray trailed off. He began to understand what they were saying.

"Man, all this Nidoran around, they're certainly rather excited…" said a boy's voice.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said a girl in response. "Watching them's getting me rather excited as well. I'm getting in the mood for a battle."

"Really? Well, Virdian City and the hotel are still quite a way's away."

"We can always have a battle right now. Right here. Nobody's around."

"In the middle of this road? This dirty, filthy road?"

"Yes."

"SHRED ME."

"Oh no." Gray's face curdled. "I'm still waking straight ahead I'm still walking straight head…"

"DO NOT TURN!" said Epsilon.

"Yes!"

"DO NOT TURN! BECOME A MAN! KNOW THE PLEASURES OF THE VOYEUR AS I ONCE KNEW THEM!"

"I'm turning!" said Gray and dove then scrambled through the nearby bushes, delving as deeply as he could. Branches slashed his skin and clothes and thorns bit at him, but fear of adult issues drove him to madly force his way through until he broke into a wide grove. The first thing he noticed was the slightly greenish light and the open air that was pungent with the smell of fresh-spilt berry juice. Gray brushed himself off, opened his eyes, and saw his situation had not been improved despite the pain.

Gray had stumbled upon a Nidoran harem. On a berry-littered mound of stones a particularly large, virile-looking young male was leaning the rock on the top, surrounded by little Nidoran females wearing small leaves or broken nuts in bikinis fashions. Their heads were bowed close to the ground as they fanned the male with broad leaves. A war-like bird known as Spearow was descending to the ground even as Gray looked with a female in its beak. Spearow dropped the Nidoran to the ground and looked at the harem master, who gazed indifferently on the female, who trembled and bowed.

The male Nidoran twisted its neck so that its horn pointed directly down.

Hard pleasure appeared in its eyes and the Spearow gripped the female Nidoran in its talons again and took off. It did not go far. It disappeared into the foliage of a nearby tree. Shrill chirping sounded out and with them a Nidoran's screams. The branches thrashed; leaves fell; the screaming stopped.

It took a moment for what had happened to register.

"… Holy crap," said Epsilon.

"That's terrible!" cried Gray

"That's awful."

"I'm catching him!" said Gray, emboldened by justice. "Go, Xewtwo!"

The Charmander appeared in the middle of the grove. The females scattered into the bushes. Deprived of its slave-wives, the Nidoran's spines flared. Uttering a fierce growl (as fierce as an unevolved pokémon could manage, at least) it charged, horn forward, straight into a small sphere of fire that struck it in the face. It stumbled and fell on its own face and Xewtwo struck it with its tail, sliding it roughly across the grass and burning its rump.

"Pokéball, go!"

"You don't have to say that, you know."

A kernel-like red-white sphere struck the Nidoran in the head and sucked it inside, wobbling three times on the earth before falling still with the noise of a gentle bell. Gray took the pokéball and held it triumphantly in the air.

"I caught my first pokémon! His name is now Kaiser."

"Seriously. You are getting this crap from cartoons, aren't you? Just stop."

Gray took a look at his environment.

"Now I'm lost."

"Lovely," said Epsilon. "Don't worry—I have a map. See that mound of stones? That happens to be straight west. Actually at this point we're not too far from our destination."

Gray was pleased to hear this, so he put Xewtwo back in its back—which was for the best, as he was starting to get fresh with the liberated females—and went in the direction indicated. The wilderness was a little sparser in this direction and he suddenly broke out into the open edge of a high slope, which overlooked a much rockier, barer space whose centerpiece was a broad pond. In the distance he could see the high shapes of what seemed like pillars rising in rows. Planting his heels forward, Gray cautiously let himself skid down the slope until he reached the shores of the pond, which he followed west until leaving the waters behind and fell onto another smoothed path which went further on between a hill to the north and a full range south heading east to west, until he came across a broad stony gorge hidden among the mountains.

The gorge that he could see ran northwards until his line of sight was ended by an enormous wall made of pewter-colored stone. In the center was a medieval-looking iron gate decorated by an enormous, ridged hexagonal symbol.

"This is what I wanted to show you!" said Epsilon. "The First Gate—it leads to the hallowed Indigo Plateau, sacred proving grounds where the Elite 4 and the Champion reside! There's a Gate which you need a Boulder Badge through—there's one for every badge, you see. Right now we can't go any further, but it will be worth it to come back here once we've had a few. Everything between here and the Pokemon League is wilderness, filled with rare and powerful pokémon, or so I've been told. "

Gray continued down into the gorge to get a closer look and once he reached the gate, he realized he had no idea just how monumental it was from afar. The great stone lobe utterly dwarfed him, rising nearly twenty feet in the air so that he had to crane his neck to see the rune, which he guessed represented the Boulder Badge. He didn't see anywhere to put said badge once he had it, but he supposed it would be obvious what needed to be done once he had done it.

"So, I guess I should gather all eight badges, huh?"

"Well, yes. It's the goal of all trainers."

"Well, there's other stuff, too," said Gray. "I know there are many other tournament rings and various other forms of competition."

"And you can do that between gathering all eight badges," said Epsilon. "It'll take you years to get all eight—you'll have plenty of time. The Boulder Badge has traditionally been the first badge trainers get, since it's closest to Pallet Town."

"How close?"

"The Gym for it is at Pewter City, beyond the Viridian Forest."

"I'm… I'm not sure if I'm ready to the Gym Leader yet. Doesn't that seem a little soon?"

"Of course," said Epsilon. "You should go the Pewter City anyway—a lot of trainers make it a sort of temporary base. From there you'll have access to Virdian Forest, the Vermillion region via Diglett's Tunnel, Moon Valley, and Mt. Moon itself, along with the mountains north and south of the town. It'll be a place where you can nurture yourself."

"Hmmm… Okay." Gray re-activated the map and investigated the areas Epsilon mentioned. When he zoomed onto Viridian City out of curiosity, he paused. "Hey, what about this Gym?"

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah, Viridian City Gym…"

"Isn't that actually the one closest?"

"Well, yes," said Epsilon. "However, you should stand clear of it. The Viridian Gym Leader acts as sort of a gate-keeper to the Elite Four—what I mean to say is, he's traditionally the last. He is the Gym Master, the organizational head of the Gym Association, a subdivision of the Pokémon Association. As such, he is the most skilled and powerful. Even if he uses a team scaled down to match yours, you probably won't win. In any case, he usually refuses to face trainers without the other seven badges."

"Ah, I see," said Gray and he turned to leave.

"What are _you_ doing here?" said a voice so powerfully scathing there was only one in the world that it could be.

Serena was standing behind him, already a pokéball in hand as if readied for a fight. He noticed, with a certain amount of discomfort, could see that she must have gone through a rough road like he had. Sweat was gleaming on her skin and had slightly soaked her shirt, while her long azure hair had fallen loose.

"Hello, Serena!" he said after a moment.

"Why on earth are you here?" she said. "There's no way you could possibly have any badges yet! You're already bad enough as it is, why are you wasting your time with a dead end?"

"Well, why are you here? Did you somehow reach Pewter City and get a Boulder Badge already?"

"Eehh…" Serena hesitated. "I'm just here to look."

"So am I, then," said Gray. "I also managed to catch a second pokémon. Go, Kaiser!"

The Poison-type appeared at his feet, turned, and immediately charged straight for him. Gray narrowly managed to side-step without tripping to the ground and quickly recalled the creature.

"What was that about?"

"I'm pretty sure it's because you screwed up his mating season. Seriously, he was doing pretty well until you came along."

"It's immoral to have more than one woman anyway. Was he even married to any of them?"

"… He's a pokémon, Gray."

Spluttering laughter was coming from the girl; she was so taken by hilarity it seemed as though it was hurting her. "God, you're just awful, you know that? Here, look at what a real trainer has managed to caught."

From her pokéballs Serena released a large, dark-beige sphere of fluffy armed with a worm-like tail and ridiculous enormous teeth. Gray already knew it to be a Raticate, the evolved form of the purple rat-like pokémon Rattata that was known for infesting nearly every single route.

"Wow! A Raticate?" Gray took a step closer and he raised his eyebrow. There was something a little off about the Raticate, as he had seen others like it before. Its fur was speckled with white flecks and its normally white underbelly was gray. "That's a fully-evolved pokémon. You don't see these in the wilds around here very often."

"It just goes to show how skilled I am," said Serene smugly. "If you don't want your father to denounce you as his son, you better get to work. If you can't even get a low-level pokémon you obey you at this point, you've got a longer way to go than most!"

Serena turned around and walked away, utterly a proud noblewoman's laugh as she did. Gray stared at her back as she left, and asked with a hint of desperation in his voice, "He wouldn't do that, would he?"

Epsilon, in his kindest, most soothing voice, said, "He totally would, Gray. He totally would.


End file.
